A typical conventional audio system reads out music data from a medium and reproduces music based on the music data. Such an audio system must basically be provided on a room basis, and the overall cost is high. Meanwhile, there has been a concentrated audio system that can store all music data in one location and reproduce a selected music piece in each room.
In this concentrated audio system, however, a number of interconnections such as those for music signals and control signals must be provided in each room. One music piece can be reproduced at a time in all the rooms but a music piece cannot be reproduced from the beginning in a room while the same music piece is in the process of being reproduced in another room.
When an application program for music reproduction is installed in a general-purpose PC, music data can be obtained from a site on the Internet and music can be reproduced based on the data, but the data must be completely received before the music is reproduced midway or fast-forwarded or reversed just like a music CD. More specifically, the special reproducing manners cannot be achieved for data yet to be received.